sylvam

I agree that your explanation of the rift is the best guess as to what the show runners intended, but I think we got really uneven exposition. In the beginning, Shae got a ton of time and the actress played her loyalty to Tyrion as based in love. To me this comes across clearly in her acting choices, and if you read interviews with the actress, it's how she sees the relationship too. It's only because of this depth early on that I particularly feel the characters and the dissolution of the relationship deserved more time -- if Shae had been book Shae, I would care less about exactly what had gone on in her head since we saw her head for the boat. But in particular, I also want to know what Tyrion thinks about their relationship, too. The whole murder was played, to me, very perfunctorily, when in fact there are many more possible interactions that seem more likely to me (consistent with the characters) than what happened. Not at all a book purist, but the combination of the different characterization combined with sudden course correction to a "set piece" from the book just felt emotionally wrong to me. I needed more exposition for two reasons: 1) explicit confirmation that the show remembers the early portrayal of their relationship, vs. just retconning to get to the book outcome and 2) book aside, more emotional satisfaction from the dialogue and/or acting (I think PD is better at some emotions than others - he just doesn't do temporarily unhinged as well). I was invested in their relationship, and simply don't find it satisfying to fill in the details myself in this case. Prior to this episode, I wouldn't have minded if Shae had taken Tysha's place in Tyrion's emotional baggage going forward, but based on how everything went down in the end, it's probably going to feel pretty unsatisfying if they go this direction unless we get more explanation than we currently have.

It's interesting the juxtaposition between Tyrion's fairly easy acceptance that Bronn liked him and was really his friend, even if he was ultimately going to act for self-preservation, and his seeming conviction that Shae 100% never loved him and had been faking everything. I just read that the Oberyn/Tryion cell scene was the very first scene the actor shot. I don't know how you could just show up the first day and do that, although I guess it probably helped that he was a viewer/fan of the show. Still.

I felt like the scene in the books was Cersei realizing she couldn't stop Jaime, so she pretends to want him too to regain some control (and to hurry him up to avoid getting caught). I imagine that it's kind of a vicious cycle that's been going on for a while, because Jaime feels like she doesn't really mean it all the time when she says no, if she sometimes gives in like she wants him. It's unclear to me how much she desires him sexually in general; just because she doesn't want him under those circumstances doesn't mean she doesn't want him at all, but I tend to lead towards Cersei not feeling much lust for Jaime (or anyone).